The next day.
Room 603, Grand Hotel.
“Boss, forget about the company only having two outsourced clerks, you even chose a residential building in Wan Chai as our company address. Isn’t our Gao Yue Film and Television just a shell company?”
Looking at the new company’s staff onboarding information and its location, Jin Qiqi couldn’t help but complain.
While Fei He Pictures couldn’t compare to giants like Global Pictures in mainland China, it was, after all, a newly established prestigious entity in the film and television industry.
For a subsidiary to enter the Hong Kong film and television market, not only was the company address shockingly chosen, but the two newly hired administrative staff were merely nominal, receiving a thousand yuan each per month for their registration.
When Jin Qiqi noticed the legal representative of the registered company, she was stunned, her eyes filled with confusion.
Good heavens, the legal representative of Gao Yue Film and Television was a stranger whose name she had never heard and whom she had never seen.
At this moment, looking at the company details of Gao Yue Film and Television, Jin Qiqi’s head throbbed.
She pointed to the legal representative field and asked helplessly, “Boss Gao, where did you find this legal representative, Xu Yuejin?”
“Guo Yue recently started a security company, and Xu Yuejin is an ordinary employee there.”
“Fine, I was being generous calling it a shell company earlier. Now it looks like a company with absolutely nothing.”
Gao Fei, leaning back on the sofa, felt a pang of helplessness as Jin Qiqi complained again.
Initially, his idea was to emulate Zero Degree Pictures and support a puppet to control the company, with him remotely managing all company affairs from behind the scenes.
Then, he would transfer films that couldn’t be produced in the mainland under Gao Yue Film and Television to be released in Hong Kong, Taiwan, and other places.
Subsequently, through the newly established film and television company in Hong Kong, he would open up the Asian market.
Gao Fei’s idea was indeed sound.
Using the new company as a vanguard to pave the way for Fei He Pictures and penetrate the Asian film and television market.
However, when he personally handled tasks like selecting a company location and recruiting staff, he suddenly realized that the housing prices, cost of living, and labor costs in Hong Kong were terrifyingly high.
A mere hundred-plus square meter office space in a commercial building could cost over two million yuan in rent per month, excluding property management fees.
Due to the exorbitant rent for office space, Gao Fei sought an alternative.
He found a small shop in a secluded location, intending to use it as the company’s base.
A small shop of over eighty square meters, located in a somewhat remote area, with a reasonable rent from the landlord.
The monthly rent was only about ten thousand yuan.
But after stating the rent, the landlord informed Gao Fei that because he was an outsider, he would face some targeting.
In addition to the necessary monthly rent, local gangs would come to collect sanitation fees, and government departments would levy other charges.
All in all, the monthly expenses for the shop would be at least fifty thousand yuan.
If the gangs or officials had events like weddings, birthdays, or other celebrations, additional fees would be collected monthly as gifts.
After hearing the landlord’s explanation, Gao Fei immediately turned to leave.
This was outrageous. No wonder they say every inch of land in Hong Kong is precious. If they charged for air, people would probably be collecting fees every month.
Finally, he had no choice but to reluctantly choose a seventy-plus square meter residential unit as the new company address.
Fortunately, Hong Kong did not have many requirements for company registration locations.
If it were in places like Kyoto, apart from homestays and hotels, residential buildings within communities generally did not allow company registrations.
Even if they did, it would be for pyramid schemes.
After selecting the company address, Gao Fei immediately went to the talent market to recruit new employees.
After all, it was a film and television company, so the employees’ majors should be related to media and film.
After a preliminary screening, ten people were selected.
Gao Fei did not formally recruit these ten selected individuals through interviews.
This was because the newly rented company had no office equipment; it was just an empty room.
Therefore, he arranged private meetings with each of the ten individuals for one-on-one discussions.
These ten people had no specific requirements for the company’s office location.
Their only condition was to be paid on time and to have their five social insurances and one housing fund contributions made monthly.
In Gao Fei’s eyes, timely payment of remuneration was certainly a necessary condition.
As for salary and the five insurances and one housing fund, these were minor matters; he could afford such expenses.
However, the ten candidates seemed to treat him like a big spender.
Because it was a newly established film and television company, the so-called salaries they demanded, in addition to basic salary and bonuses, also included ten to five percent share dividends.
When they proposed this condition for their salaries, Gao Fei was stunned on the spot.
It wasn't that he was stingy; he would definitely give shares, but it should be after the company was fully operational.
These ten people, however, directly denied him the opportunity to make empty promises and insisted on shares in the new company from the outset.
In fact, salary was secondary; Gao Fei could temporarily cover it.
But the main reason he hesitated to recruit these ten people was their background.
All ten of them had gang affiliations.
While they weren't high-ranking members, their identities were already on record with the police.
They hadn't been arrested because they had no criminal records.
Gao Fei learned that approximately two-thirds of the university students in the talent market had gang affiliations.
The reason was that to avoid being bullied during their studies, these academically excellent students had no choice but to join gangs for protection.
Upon learning the truth, he couldn't help but lament how much happier students in the mainland were compared to those in Hong Kong.
This week of recruitment felt like a battlefield for Gao Fei, leaving him exhausted both physically and mentally. He would go out full of energy and return with only half his life left.
This social butterfly almost became a recluse.
After listening to Gao Fei’s arduous week, Jin Qiqi showed a look of sympathy.
However, she couldn’t resist teasing him, “I never expected that Boss Gao, who could command influence in the mainland, would face so many setbacks and frustrations when starting a business in Hong Kong.”
Gao Fei rolled his eyes at her and asked wearily, “Didn’t the cinema chains introduce you to some contacts? How are things going?”
The connections with the cinema chains were introduced by Zhang Ziheng. It was originally his responsibility to negotiate cooperation.
But now, he was in a precarious position, a prominent figure among the contenders in the major reshuffle.
To avoid suspicion and prevent his whereabouts from being exposed, and to avoid meeting with the intermediaries, the cooperation with the cinema chains had to be handled by Jin Qiqi.
“There are a total of 156 cinemas in Hong Kong, with 32 cinema chain companies, namely Golden Harvest Cinemas, Emperor Cinemas, Star City Circuit, and so on…”
Jin Qiqi gave a general overview of the cinema chains in Hong Kong. After finishing, she continued, “Among the ten cinema chain companies you introduced, six are state-owned, three are local, and one is foreign-funded. We have secured cooperation with a total of seven cinema chain companies. The profit-sharing from box office revenue is not significantly different from that in the mainland. These seven cinema chain companies have a total of twenty-eight movie theaters. Although the locations of the theaters vary, the cinemas of the seven companies are spread across all regions of Hong Kong, allowing our movies to be shown throughout the city.”
She placed the yet-to-be-signed contracts on the table and continued, “The release date for the film has been settled and is scheduled for mid-September.”
Gao Fei nodded in silence, carefully reviewing the negotiated contracts.
After a moment, he put down the documents and frowned, “Among the seven cooperating cinema chain companies, six are state-owned and one is foreign-funded. No local cinema chain companies are cooperating with us?”
Jin Qiqi shook her head at him helplessly and sighed, “The capital behind the local companies is complex, involving foreign investment and also gang affiliations. Moreover, they demand a fifty-fifty split of the box office revenue, which is impossible to negotiate.”
Upon hearing the word "gang," Gao Fei frowned slightly.
From renting office space to visiting the talent market, every industry in Hong Kong seemed to be inextricably linked with gangs.
From minor sanitation fees for shops to major company dividends, the presence of gangs was ubiquitous.
“Gangs are involved again. How many industries in Hong Kong are not involved with gangs?”
He couldn’t help but lament, his tone filled with a hint of helplessness and sarcasm.
Jin Qiqi had some understanding of the history of gangs in Hong Kong.
Seeing Gao Fei’s aversion, she explained, “Boss, in the years since Hong Kong's handover, the gangs have indeed become more restrained. Before the handover, apart from the legitimate sector, their influence was present in every industry. The government is currently focusing on Hong Kong’s economy, and it’s estimated that a major crackdown on gangs and similar organizations will occur in a few years.”
Hearing Jin Qiqi’s explanation, Gao Fei couldn’t help but recall his past life in Hong Kong.
However, the Hong Kong in Dragon Country seemed even more chaotic and treacherous than the Hong Kong of his past life.
“Forget it. Since negotiating with local cinema chain companies is difficult, we’ll cooperate with these seven cinema chain companies for now.”
Gao Fei changed the subject from gangs and asked thoughtfully, “When you were negotiating cooperation, did you mention anything about promotional assistance?”
“Yes!”
Jin Qiqi nodded and explained the general situation regarding promotions: “The seven cinema chain companies can only provide poster promotions at each cinema at most. To conduct promotions throughout Hong Kong, we would need to fund it ourselves and cooperate with television stations, media companies, and so on.”
Gao Fei nodded thoughtfully and did not continue the conversation.
His main reasons for investing in a film company in Hong Kong at this time were caution and a desire to maintain a low profile.
If he made a large, aggressive entry into the Hong Kong film industry, he would undoubtedly face the same targeting from local film companies as Zero Degree Pictures had.
Gao Fei did not have the same ambition as Zero Degree Pictures at the moment; he was primarily seeking stability and gradually expanding his market share in Hong Kong.
After a moment of thought, he spoke, “Forget it, let’s forgo the promotions. Our focus now is on being low-key and saving money. We’ll rely on the seven cinema chains for in-cinema advertising.”
“Okay, I’ll inform the person in charge when we sign the contracts,” Jin Qiqi agreed.
Gao Fei took out his phone, found Guo Yue’s number, and dialed it.
The call was hung up after ringing twice.
About two minutes later, the phone rang back.
“Hello, boss!”
“What are you doing, being so secretive about answering a call?”
“Nothing much, just teaching someone how to do things,” Guo Yue replied, and then preemptively asked, “Boss, do you need Xu Yuejin to come to Hong Kong?”